The Man of Wordshttp://alasdairstuart.com
Alasdair StuartSun, 02 Aug 2015 10:01:35 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/http://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngThe Man of Wordshttp://alasdairstuart.com
Sunday Moment of Zen: Honest Trailers does the Mission: Impossible Movieshttp://alasdairstuart.com/2015/08/02/sunday-moment-of-zen-honest-trailers-does-the-mission-impossible-movies/
http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/08/02/sunday-moment-of-zen-honest-trailers-does-the-mission-impossible-movies/#commentsSun, 02 Aug 2015 10:00:56 +0000http://alasdairstuart.com/?p=3584]]>I’ve been spending a lot of time with the Mission: Impossible movies this week for a whole bunch of work reasons. That may be why I laughed so hard at this glorious, unflinching and very affectionate takedown of the franchise. This is your Sunday Moment of Zen. And probably a rogue IMF Agent. Let’s face it everyone else is…

]]>http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/08/02/sunday-moment-of-zen-honest-trailers-does-the-mission-impossible-movies/feed/0mi zenalasdairstuartThe Kindle Two Step-July 2015http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/08/01/the-kindle-two-step-july-2015/
http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/08/01/the-kindle-two-step-july-2015/#commentsSat, 01 Aug 2015 09:00:23 +0000http://alasdairstuart.com/?p=3573]]>I read a lot of e-books because it’s an inherently versatile format that encourages experimentation. Also because a lot of e-books tend to skew short and I’m interested in those forms, learning how they work and doing them myself.

Plus books are GREAT and I love reading.

So, here’s what’s going to happen. Every now and then I’ll do a big roundup post of the e-books I’ve read and liked recently. That second word is important too; there’s been some stuff I’ve read in the last couple of months I’ve really not got on with. That doesn’t deserve my time, so it doesn’t deserve yours either, hence the absence of bad reviews here. Instead what you’ll see is the parade of really good stuff that I’ve found recently, including a Matt Wallace novella, an Annie Bellet short story and a raft of Jurassic London stuff.

If you like the sound of a book, click on the cover and it’ll take you to the buy page. If you don’t, keep reading. So here’s the first one, from Jurassic London:

Rose Biggin‘s story combines real murder with fictional murder. A performance of Julius Caesar is heading to the big finish and this finish is going to be much more permanent than one cast member is expecting… It’s a chilly, very funny piece that never even considers giving you context outside the cast. You know who’s going to die, you know when and you see it happen. And, like the rest of the cast, you just keep on acting. Subtle, brilliant and dark.

One of the several chapbooks Jurassic London have released in their A Town Called Pandemonium universe, The Rite of Spring starts with a very different take on the first performance of the infamous ballet. Rose Biggin’s ‘The Russian Revolution’ is delivered with such a straight, level tone of voice it reads more like historical reportage than fiction and the reactions to the piece she describes are disturbingly plausible.

The idea of something unprecedented in normal life is expanded upon with ‘The Invisible Rhinoceros’ by William Curnow. This is in the curious position of being one of my favorite stories but the least successful fit for the anthology. It’s a classic idea, the brush with something impossible that we choose not to quite look at and it’s beautifully executed but it doesn’t quite sit with the other stories. Which, given the subject matter, may be the point.

Martin Petto’s ‘Letter From The President of the British Board of Film Censors’ is the most laconic piece here and also the funniest. It’s exactly what the title suggests but as the story goes on you get hints of personal agenda and an ending that may be subversive, wry or be the only part of a titanic battle we ever get to see. Regardless it’s an excellent piece, playful but with a hard edge to it.

Finally, ‘Pick’ by SA Partridge does three things at once. A knowing riff on the ‘bored rich people abroad have adventures’ story it’s also a subtly forceful condemnation of imperialism and a nicely ambiguous horror story. All that’s clear, as the story closes, is something awful has happened. But, appropriately for a book about sudden, drastic change that’s all we know for sure. Another impressive entry in a very impressive series.

Starvation and overpopulation are endemic and, humans being humans, we turn in on ourselves. Detective Jon ‘Busboy’ Pacson is a homicide officer without portfolio. Officially he’s a floating detective. Unofficially, Pacson is the guy you call when you get a cannibalism case. And there are a lot of them…

Matt Wallace has been doing artful things withdigitalfiction for years and this is one example. It’s a blood-slick, gristly world and Wallace uses Pacson as our guide to it, laying out the trail of clues even as the bodies continue to drop. The end result is always gory, always horrible but never inhuman. This is a tragedy, a story about how low we’ve all fallen and about one cop who’s painfully aware of it. Haunting, confident, brutal and he’s only got better from here too.

Like The Rite of Spring, this is a chapbook anthology set in Jurassic London‘s A Town Called Pandemonium universe. It’s slightly alternate history but here even that idea is played with. These are stories not about legendary Irish leader Jim Larkin but about the shape he left in the world and the world he moved through. It’s a gutsy move but it pays off with a quarter of four of the best stories Jurassic London had brought out to date.

Archie Black’s ‘Sackville Street’ explores the man and his environment as indivisible, an ideological ghost forever stone-taped into the architecture of his city. Stuart Suffel’s ‘Coward’ ignores Larkin but focuses on the shadow he cast and the quieter heroism of those trapped inside it. It’s the gentlest piece here and one that carries a heavyweight emotional punch that’s entirely earned.

‘Lockout’ by Damien Kelly hits even harder, despite having a far smaller focus. It’s the story of Alice Brady and what she does to maintain individuality in the face of both history and mortality and, again, it’s remarkable. Finally Martin McGrath’s ‘And Dublin Wept’ closes with the alternate history angle very much back to the fore and a final line that’s as chilling as any you’ll read this year. Together they create a small and extraordinarily powerful anthology that sits in no one’s shadow and casts a long one of it’s own.

Thelma York was the first lady of space, an astronaut who led the way for humanity to spread out to the other worlds. But that was thirty years ago and Thelma has other things to occupy her time. Her ailing husband, her memories and, perhaps, one last flight.

This and First Flight were my first experience of Kowal’s work and they won’t be my last. She writes with a light, character-driven touch and embraces the untidy realities of life in a way that throws light on both them and the science fictional background she sets them in. Thelma’s mindset is a kinder, more sensible version of the classic astronaut ‘go higher, go further, go first’ approach and Kowal uses that to paint a portrait of a complex, flawed, deeply likable person. There’s no overwrought drama here either, simply an extended conversation between two adults about what the best solution to a difficult problem is. Gentle, clever, character-driven SF at its best.

As is this. An unusual kind of time travel allows a very specific observer to take a look at the Wright brothers a little ‘early’. But, as is so often the case there are complications.Like the previous story this revels in the glorious complexity of everyday life. It also allows Kowal to show off a very different viewpoint, and the interactions between her old, stoic lead and the other characters here are immense fun. They also allow her to explore what happens when individuals are confronted with their history and how, sometimes, they soar even though they know no one will see. A different perspective on history and an excellent story.

‘Black Paintings’ by James Smythe is a story that’s resonated a lot more with me this week. After yet more calls for the UFC to revise their stoppage rules after not one but two utterly brutal fights, Smythe’s story of how we use combat to medicate against horror has an extra ring to it. It follows an extremely rich, extremely ill man facing down his imminent death and finding solace of a sort in a painting. As he studies it obsessively, he finds something holy encoded into its desperate lines; the moment where a fight turns one way or the other. The moment where victory becomes possible off the back of defeat or, at the very least, you get to make the other fighter sweat for the win. Unflinchingly, hauntingly bleak its one of the strongest short pieces Smythe has done and is as haunting as the painting it revolves around.

One of Jurassic’s annual Christmas treats, the 2014 Stocking Stuffer is a typically energetic, breathless burst of flash fiction invention. ‘The Quantum Quadrant Speed-of-Light Elite Fleet Christmas Party’ by Rose Biggin is classic SF sugar high combined with a familial dynamic while ‘Drones’ by Paul M Ford proves that butlers are always in control, even when they’re not strictly corporeal. ‘Afterwards’ by William Curnow is a haunting examination of the after effects of deep space warfare and the livings scrounged by those who clean up after it’s all over. Finally ‘Light’ by Erin Horáková is an ebullient, bouncy story about the perils of space piracy and dowrys. All of them have spark and wit, none of them outstay their welcome and this is a present anyone would be happen to find sitting next to their tangerine wrapped in silver foil.

Durzo Blint is an assassin. He’s The Assassin, a man who was brought death to countless decades under countless names. And now it’s time for another.

This is my first foray into Weeks‘ work and it’s a decent on ramp. You get an idea of who Blint is, what he is and most importantly you get a lot of context. Weeks is best known for his action and the fight scenes here are fast, hard and tense. But what stays with you, oddly, are the character beats. Durzo is a man at war with both his enemies and his countless years of experience. He wants things to change but the only bigger threat in the room than Durzo is his reputation and that can cause problems for everyone, even himself. It’s a smart introduction to Durzo and his world and a refreshingly grounded, pragmatic piece of fantasy.

Ryska’s a survivor; of her world, the experiments that made her less and more than human and day to day life. But today Ryska is going to make a choice. One that will take her chances of survival out of her hands…

This is my first exposure to Bellet’s work but it won’t be my last. It’s action-oriented but like the best action she grounds everything solidly in character. Ryska has good reasons for everything she does and that, along with her resourcefulness, further reinforces just how much trouble she’s in. A closed fist of a story with not a word spare it’s a great introduction both to Bellet’s work and a world I’d be happy to see her revisit.

Another deceptively simple story about the perils of fitting in and what happens when we don’t know quite where we should be. It’s character driven SF that uses the toybox of Anime tropes but does so in a refreshingly open and overt way. There’s a lot to unpack here in a piece that’s by turns gentle, brutal and hopeful. It’s never dull, frequently excellent and embodies a lot of what makes the digital field great; the ability to find, appropriately enough, a home for stories that are as good as they are unusual.

Finally, Curran‘s piece is a haunting, deceptively simple story. Something terrible has happened and, as the investigation digs in, it seems that the cause of the event may have been far smaller and far more dangerous than any bomb. This is quietly chilling stuff with no explanations offered. Instead we’re left like the survivors, dazed, wondering what just happened and terrified that it might happen again. Wonderful, minimalist, elegant horror.

So there you go. Click on the covers of anything that sounds good and you’ll go straight to the buy page. And if you don’t find anything? Check back here in a couple of months. I’ll be doing this again.

]]>http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/08/01/the-kindle-two-step-july-2015/feed/0downloadalasdairstuartput to silenceite of springend of fleshbig jimlady astronaut of marsfirst flightBlack Paintingsstocking stuff 2014perfect shadowannie belletfour seasons in the floating worldthe kissReview: Mind MGMT Volume 1http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/31/review-mind-mgmt-volume-1/
http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/31/review-mind-mgmt-volume-1/#commentsFri, 31 Jul 2015 16:21:41 +0000http://alasdairstuart.com/?p=3590]]>The Sequential sale finishes tomorrow so now is the time to pick up something. And if you’re interested in spy fiction, you need to check out Mind MGMT Volume 1.

Meru is a journalist and she’s worried she’s missed the boat. Her first book was huge but since then she’s had trouble focusing, hasn’t been able to settle and is starting to run out of time and money. Until she discovers a lead in the case of the Amnesia Flight. Everyone aboard Flight 815 spontaneously lost their memories and, to this day, have yet to get them back. Now, Meru thinks she might have a lead. What she doesn’t know, is just where it will take her…

Matt Kindt is an extraordinary talent and this, the series that really put him on the map for me, gives you every indication of why. For a start his art style is remarkable. The loose penmanship and fluid colours look almost abstract at times and put me in mind of Jeff Lemire’s beautifully Lost Dogs. But where that’s a book that uses the style to show the brutality of humanity, this uses it to show the fluidity of reality. This is very nearly the last conspiracy story you need ever read; one where your own memories and experiences are as deniable, as hackable as the world around you.

That alone would make this good. What makes it exceptional is the way that Kindt digs into that idea of uncertainty and shows us the very human cost behind it. The book’s entire first half focuses on Meru and a CIA agent who assists her as they run across the world looking for answers. Meru’s lost her purpose, the agent has lost his partner and they’re adrift on a constantly shifting current of lies. It’s a chilling section that echoes the final hour of The Terminator. Two people cut loose from the world struggling to survive long enough to find out how to get back to it. It’s compelling, bleak stuff.

And then you get to the second half of the book and everything changes. There’s a monologue in JFK, delivered by Donald Sutherland’s character, which is just an amazing piece of cinema. It’s a symphonic crescendo of implication and horror delivered in Sutherland’s glorious voice that sweeps you up into the reassuringly terrifying world it describes. They ARE here. They DO know where you are. The calls ARE coming from inside the house.
That monologue is knocked into a cocked hat by the explanation Meru gets. And, better still, by what follows. Kindt pulls the curtain all the way back and shows us the world she’s been struggling to understand. It’s remarkable because it’s so perfectly well thought out but also because of how tragic it is. The psychic abilities at the heart of the book can’t touch the human tendency to assume the worst and as a result even the most powerful spy is rendered painfully fallible. It’s a tragic, completely understandable way to end the first volume and it leaves you with enough answered questions to be satisfied. But, like Meru, you’ll be back for. I know I will.

]]>http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/31/review-mind-mgmt-volume-1/feed/0mind mgmtalasdairstuartmind mgmtIMG_0553Briefing: What You Need To Know About Mission: Impossiblehttp://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/31/briefing-what-you-need-to-know-about-mission-impossible/
http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/31/briefing-what-you-need-to-know-about-mission-impossible/#commentsFri, 31 Jul 2015 09:00:12 +0000http://alasdairstuart.com/?p=3543]]>So, Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation is out at cinemas now. It’s the fifth entry in the running, jumping, shooting, falling, and spying action movie series that’s spanned two decades at this point. Chances are you might have skipped a couple of the four previous ones. If you didn’t skip Mission:Impossible 2, well…I’m really sorry. Me neither.

Anyway before Limp Bizkit frantically warm up to slaughter the theme tune yet again let’s talk about what you need to know.

Firstly, Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise. Ethan is an interesting lead because he’s basically the last Cold War spy. Espionage fiction had a bit of a collective freakout in the 1990s when the Iron Curtain fell and Ethan and the later Bond movies both embody that. Bond dealt with it by killing Sean Bean, regenerating into Daniel Craig and completely changing the done-in-one nature of the movies. Mission:Impossible dealt with it by having Ethan do lots of really violent gymnastics.

You can see the exact trajectory of the genre’s course correction in these movies. The first, directed with caffeinated, dizzying glee by Brian De Palma is a straight up and down spy flick. It starts with Ethan disguised as a Russian secret police officer, takes in a disastrous job at an Embassy and revolves entirely around trying to secure a list of every undercover agent in the field. It’s Le Carre with added helicopter fights, Bond with less quipping.

The sequel completely ignores the team dynamic, gives Ethan a ‘90s action hero wig and proceeds to try to be a John Woo movie. It doesn’t suit being a John Woo movie. John Woo doesn’t suit the subject matter. But regardless they just keep pounding away at it until it’s in a shape that loosely resembles the basic core concept just with way fewer agents, way more doves and a surprising amount of Capoeira. There’s a vague sense of confusion to the tone of the whole thing and it’s fairly unsurprising that the franchise was rested for a while after this entry.If MI:2 is the post-Glaznost hangover then MI:3 is the reconstructed early ‘00s Vegan diet. This is the meatiest of the films to date and the one that gives Ethan the most to do. As the movie opens, he’s retired from the field and married. Have a guess how well that goes.

Wrong.

It’s much worse.

Just as Woo and these movies were an awful fit for each other, JJ Abrams is a perfect one. It opens at the end, the macguffin is literally a macguffin that no one knows the significance of and the entire thing fizzes with the exact manic spy energy that Alias had at its best. Even better, the idea of the IMF going after arms dealers and terrorist groups makes infinitely more sense than yet another bloody rogue agent, even though there’s one of those too.

Most importantly though, this is very much a mature, different Ethan who you actually care about. The floppy hair’s gone, he no longer looks terrifyingly like Captain America’s Chris Evans and the personal stakes mean you actually quite like the dude. He’s come in from the cold and the film makes you care both about that and his willingness to go back out into it.

Which is fortunate as everything in Ethan’s life has very much assumed the shape of pear by the time Ghost Protocol hits. His wife has been murdered, he’s serving time in a Russian prison and the IMF are being framed and disavowed en masse. With minimal resources, a panicked and divided team and no time, he’s forced to shift from being the furthest man from home to being the last man standing. There’s some interesting stuff in Ghost Protocol, including what seem to be echoes of a rumoured earlier script where Ethan is permanently injured out of active service. This being Cruise, Hollywood’s energizer bunny, that doesn’t stick but Ghost Protocol does neatly close the circuit with the original movie. This Ethan, and that one, are very much the same man; backs against the wall, blood in their mouth and an ace they lifted from the guy who beat them up in their back pocket.

Seriously the Impossible Mission Force is like a YTS scheme for supervillains. Of the four movies to date, three have included rogue IMF agents as a principle plot point while the fourth has the entire organization accused of going rogue. This idea is what looks most intriguing about the fifth movie, Rogue Nation, too. The political fallout of two decades of the IMF churning out highly trained, ambitious sociopaths is finally coming home to roost and that level of consequence is something few action movie franchises bother with. Should be fun.

Especially as, after Ghost Protocol, the movies are definitely team sports rather than ‘one lone haircut’ affairs again. The Mission:Impossible premise has the idea of specialization baked in and one of the most fun elements of the original movie is seeing the team introduced and then reived asunder like over ripe corn on a hot day. 2 and 3 both tinker with the concept, but only do so in so far as there are agents other than Ethan in 2 (but never for very long) and in 3 his team actually get names AND a single personality trait each.

But by Ghost Protocol they actually get arcs of their own too. Jeremy Renner’s William Brandt gets the most to do but both Simon Pegg and Paula Patton get a decent chunk of screen time. Pegg’s wonderfully nervy Benji is always good fun and Patton’s Jane Carter is the most interesting female lead the series has had. The team muscle, she’s also the one closest to Ethan in terms of her arc, that’s best summed up by dropping to one’s knees in the middle of flaming wreckage and screaming ‘VENGEAAAAAANCE!’ at the uncaring heavens. Even better all four of those arcs (‘VENGEAAAAAANCE! x 2, redemption for Brandt and ‘Oh Sweet Jesus Let Me Live Through This’ for Benji) are folded into an immensely fun, resonating overall story that honors the basic premise even as it’s repeatedly kicking it over. It’s a really fun movie and I’m delighted to see Rogue Nation appears to be more of the same. Just, odds are, with even more running.

So there you go, Ethan, the amazingly flawed and broken organization that trained him and the few non-criminal agents it has versus evil, their own bosses and the Box Office. They’ll win of course but, odds are, in the most obtuse way possible. I can’t wait.

]]>http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/31/briefing-what-you-need-to-know-about-mission-impossible/feed/0rogue nationalasdairstuartrogue nationethan huntm imi 2mi 3ghost protocoljane carterbenji dunnReview: Starborn by Lucy Hounsomhttp://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/30/review-starborn-by-lucy-hounsom/
http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/30/review-starborn-by-lucy-hounsom/#commentsThu, 30 Jul 2015 09:00:26 +0000http://alasdairstuart.com/?p=3534]]>The fastest way to deal with the uncertainties of adulthood is to remove them. That’s what Kyndra’s village have done. Every year, the teenagers who come of age step into a room with the village relic. It shows them their new name and their future and they leave as adults with a certain future and no fear of any surprises.

Until Kyndra.

The daughter of a local tavern owner, Kyndra’s coming of age ceremony ends with the relic destroyed and the village in chaos. Even worse, an impossibly powerful storm almost tears the village apart and she’s only saved by Bregenne and Nediah, two travellers who know far more about her than they’re letting on. Unable to return home, she journeys with them to Naris, the home of their order, to find out the truth about herself, the world and her future. A future that is far more uncertain, and powerful, than she could imagine.

Lucy Hounsom’s debut is no less powerful than her lead character’s but infinitely more controlled and confident. This is epic scale fantasy that never loses sight of the people at its core, their reactions to events larger than they are and the consequences and complexities that go hand in hand with those reactions. Kyndra in particular is an eminently likable, fundamentally sensible lead who has none of the ‘invincible snowflake’ problems that sometimes afflict characters in books like this. She’s tested in ways you will not expect here, several of them genuinely horrifying and Lucy does an incredible job not only of showing the consequences of that but the calcified cultures of both Kyndra’s home and Naris. The first is content to know the future at every turn. The second is desperate to know its future is secure and will risk the lives of countless innocent young people to ensure it does. That cultural clash, and the hints of other places we see between the two, are amongst the most interesting and nuanced worldbuilding I’ve ever come across in a fantasy novel.

It’s also refreshingly morally complex. There are villains here, but none of them are single-note. Instead, everyone’s agenda is understandable if far from sympathetic. Even better, the moment where Lucy pulls the curtain back to show just how those agenda interact is just amazing. Again, some fantasy novels can fall apart in the third act. This one accelerates, raising the stakes and pace to a level no one, you or the characters, will see coming.

What’s even more impressive is how each of those characters has a rich internal emotional landscape to match the complex ethical one they navigate. Kyndra’s just the centre of a group of characters who arrive fully formed and demand your attention. Kyndra’s classmates are especially good fun but its Bregenne and Nediah who will stay with you. The Wielders, this universes’ magic users, are a complex and refreshingly fractious group whose strengths and weaknesses are embodied in the two. Bregenne’s powers are linked to the Moon, Nediah’s to the Sun and they’ve been linked to ensure they can always protect each other. Whether their inevitable intimacy is as a result of that or of genuine attraction is the other dramatic engine of the book and it’s a V8. The pair’s scenes crackle with tension, sometimes romantic, sometimes not and always there. They embody the best and worst of the Wielders, often at the same time and their journey is as complex and emotional as Kyndra’s.

Starborn is an extraordinarily ambitious, immensely successful fantasy novel that works on every level. Lucy has created a world that’s complex at every level and explores each one of those levels as the story expands. It’s immensely ambitious, deeply personal and absorbing. Kyndra’s future may not be certain, or bright, but based on this first volume it’s certainly going to be eventful.

]]>http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/30/review-starborn-by-lucy-hounsom/feed/0StarbornalasdairstuartStarbornPodcastery: Escape Pod presents ‘Imma Gonna Finish You Off’ by Marina J. Lostetterhttp://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/29/podcastery-escape-pod-presents-imma-gonna-finish-you-off-by-marina-j-lostetter/
http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/29/podcastery-escape-pod-presents-imma-gonna-finish-you-off-by-marina-j-lostetter/#commentsWed, 29 Jul 2015 10:37:32 +0000http://alasdairstuart.com/?p=3556]]>Now live at Escape Pod, Marina J. Lostetter‘s ‘Imma Gonna Finish You Off’ is a really funny, smart, sweet story about murder, why immortality could be rubbish and the world’s most reluctant detective. It’s great fun and I got to read it as well as introduce it so, if you fancy having a listen, click here.]]>http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/29/podcastery-escape-pod-presents-imma-gonna-finish-you-off-by-marina-j-lostetter/feed/0EscapePodalasdairstuartEscapePodNews: The Black Feather Three return in The Silver Tidehttp://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/29/news-the-black-feather-three-return-in-the-silver-tide/
http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/29/news-the-black-feather-three-return-in-the-silver-tide/#commentsWed, 29 Jul 2015 09:00:55 +0000http://alasdairstuart.com/?p=3538]]>Jen Williams’ books were instrumental in finally helping me love fantasy fiction. She writes, like compatriots Andrew Reid, Den Patrick, Liz De Jager and Edward Cox, real people who react in real ways to magnificently unreal events. Plus, in Wydrin, Jen has created one of the definitive fantasy heroines of the century. And certainly the definitive fantasy tavern bill…

Tales of the Black Feather Three and their exploits abound far and wide, and Wydrin of Crosshaven, Lord Aaron Frith and Sir Sebastian have become sell swords in demand. Having foiled powerful mages and evil magic, they now face a challenge unlike any before – in the form of Wydrin’s mother.

Devinia the Red, notorious pirate and captain of the Poison Chalice, is intent on finding the fabled treasure hidden within the jungles of the cursed island of Euriale. She needs the skills of her daughter Wydrin and her companions to get there, and our heroes cannot resist the lure of coin and adventure. But no explorer has returned from the heart of the island, and it’s not long before the Three find themselves in the clutches of peril. Deep within the island of the gods, there are remnants of forces best left undisturbed…

I’m sure everything will go fine. I mean, it always does where the Black Feather Three are concerned. Don’t believe me?

]]>http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/29/news-the-black-feather-three-return-in-the-silver-tide/feed/0SilverTidealasdairstuartSilverTideComics Review Roundup: July 28th 2015http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/28/3491/
http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/28/3491/#commentsTue, 28 Jul 2015 09:00:33 +0000http://alasdairstuart.com/?p=3491]]>New Comics Day! The weekly injection of new pop cultural experimentation and fun into the zeitgeist’s bloodstream! Or something! Either way here are some of the comics I’ve read, reviewed and enjoyed in the last week over at Travelling Man’s blog.

A-Force and Secret Wars prove that this Summer’s big Marvel crossover is genuinely fun and different. We Are Robin is a brilliantly clever update to the idea of Batman’s sidekick that deserves Batgirl levels of success while Trees remains the quietest, angriest science fiction on the market right now. Finally, The Fiction and Onyx take entirely different ideas (Feral stories and a deployed apocalypse) and approach both of them with remarkable energy, wit and verve.

]]>http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/28/3491/feed/0header-right2alasdairstuarta-force issue 2onyx issue 1secret wars issue 34the fiction issue 1the robins issue 1trees issue 10Review: Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Dragonhttp://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/28/review-gideon-smith-and-the-mechanical-dragon/
http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/28/review-gideon-smith-and-the-mechanical-dragon/#commentsTue, 28 Jul 2015 09:00:00 +0000http://alasdairstuart.com/?p=3532]]>Gideon Smith is a hero of the Empire now, after his role in saving London from the Brass Dragon. That’s the official version anyway. The truth is far more complex; Gideon, while trained now, is still untested. More importantly, he’s a hero Of The Empire, meaning he goes where he’s told. But, when he’s called to assist in a matter in New York, Gideon finds himself crossing paths with the treacherous Louis Cockayne once again.Mechanical Girl is a fantastically smart, fun piece of steampunk and here, with the worldbuilding out of the way, David rolls his sleeves up and cranks every, presumably brass, dial all the way up to eleven. As well as a continuation, and resolution, of the cliffhangers from the first book we get a detailed look at this universe and it’s far more complex, vibrant and realistic than even the first book suggested.
The key to that is the relocation to America. In this universe, it’s a patchwork of foreign interests with the Spanish, British and Japanese all holding the parts they want and doing their best to ignore the parts they don’t. This leads to the book’s first big idea; The Mason-Dixon Wall. Ostensibly a barrier between the North and South of the US it’s actually barely more than six feet tall and sparsely patrolled. The centre of America in this world is a blank canvas but it’s one that’s far less romantic than Wild West movies tend to favour. Instead. It’s a country where political systems clash and individuals are faced with the choice to stand and fight or compromise themselves for survival. That idea; personal freedom versus survival echoes up and down the book and it’s never stronger than in the sections dealing with the West and the mysterious figure uniting those overrun by the lawless forces of San Antonio, aka Steamtown. This is the first and only place the book skews openly supernatural and it works beautifully; simultaneously evoking exactly the old west tropes you want but laying them out in a very different and hugely fun way. The Zorro analogue we meet here, El Chupacabra, is the most fun take on the idea I’ve seen and I’m hopeful David’s not done with them or any of the other characters that aide Gideon, his reluctant journalistic chronicler Bent and ‘Stat pilot Rowena in their mission.
And there’s plenty of them too. The uneasy split on the American continent gives him the opportunity to not only place Gideon in a larger context but create a far more nuanced world than the traditional ‘Britannia rules the waves’ approach some steampunk leans on. Instead, the Empire here is not only a powerful force but one that’s far from unopposed and may very well not be entirely altruistic. The conflict between Gideon’s desires and his assignments is a clear moral dilemma that’s being set up as a major thread of the series and it makes the books something truly unique. There’s steampunk derring do by the ton certainly but there’s also a healthy dose of moral complexity and ambiguity, darkness when required and a lot of beautifully done character work. The payoff to the Louis Cockayne plotline in particular is fantastically powerful and, like the end of the first book, spins the entire series off in an entirely different direction and at a much higher speed.
Plus no one can do mayhem like David Barnett. As well as the gunfights, fistfights and chases he throws in a bracketing plot that is just joyously done. When Darwin being kept alive by an exo-skeleton is a minor plot point you know you’re in for a good time and the big finish here is a wonderful, immense action scene that, yet again, is grounded in the characters at its heart.
This is another great entry in one of my favourite series. It balances elements of espionage, action, science fiction, horror and steampunk to explore a world that’s both entirely different from ours and refreshingly morally complex. It’s a world that needs Gideon Smith, even if sometimes it may not deserve him and a world I look forward to returning to very soon.

]]>http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/28/review-gideon-smith-and-the-mechanical-dragon/feed/0gideon smith and the brass dragonalasdairstuartgideon smith and the brass dragonReview: Concrete Park Volume 1http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/26/review-concrete-park-volume-1/
http://alasdairstuart.com/2015/07/26/review-concrete-park-volume-1/#commentsSun, 26 Jul 2015 19:19:32 +0000http://alasdairstuart.com/?p=3536]]>Isaac’s not a bad man. He’s done bad things but so has everyone else. In a very near future where its been decided there are too many people, Isaac and countless others like him have been forced to whatever they can to survive. That usually means murder. Which always means revenge. But there’s another option, one no really talks about but which is much, much worse; Scare City.

Co-created by Tony Puryear and Erika and Robert Alexander, with Puryear and Erika Alexander sharing writing duties, Concrete Park feels like a book that’s been around for years. It moves with the same wary eyes and quiet confidence as Luca, one of its leads and like her is all too aware of the danger on every page. The idea is simple; a prison planet where Earth dumps it’s criminal. But, just like thematically similar Bitch Planet, it folds countless new twists into that premise. The first, and most chilling, is just how big Scare City, the town where inmates are ‘released’ to is. This is a city, a different version of the same streets these people fought and died on, but with none of the resources and even less of the hope. Although it’s never said out loud, its clear that no one goes home after their sentence is done. Instead, they find their way to Scare City and to whatever life they can make, steal or kill to construct.The second new angle the book finds is in format. This is a collection of shared world, near simultaneous short stories that introduce us to the world at the breakneck speed of a heist movie montage but with none of the comforting distance. In the space of a few pages we meet Isaac, the supremely tough and very rash gang leader Luca, her lover Lena, their sometime rival The Potato King and countless others. The story hot potatoes from one to the next, Alexander and Puryear giving his constantly shifting, nervy perspectives that unveil a little more of the world every time they change. By the end of the book we understand how Luca’s gang interacts with their rivals, the role that hyper-articulate DJ Chavez plays in this world and the first tiny hints of just how much is at stake on this deceptively simple, brutal world. All of these characters are either vital or will cearly be vital later and all of them feel like people we’ve known for years. My personal favorite is Monkfish, the endlessly suave shape changer whose stutter is the only break in his stride but there are countless others. Alexander and Puryear’s cast is large, diverse and completely engrossing. You won’t like some of them but you won’t forget any of them in a hurry either.Puryear’s art makes sure of that. The constant focus shifts give him a chance to play with perspective as a means of storytelling and each character is shown in a different, fitting way. Isaac’s introduction is close up, showing us inside his head even as he recoils from what’s in there. The first time we see Luca she’s taking stock and it’s a mid-shot of her looking at Lena’s sleeping form. The first time we see Monkfish is from behind, the thousand faced man rendered faceless as he watches the action he’s part of not a participant in. It’s endlessly clever and Puryear’s strong lines and clever use of colour to delineate the past from the present and the real from the digital gives it a strong, direct voice that unifies the different characters.

Concrete Park is an unflinching, often violent look at a world whose inhabitants have been forced to make their own rules and what happens when those rules are broken. It’s gripping, clever comics and I look forward to seeing where it goes in future volumes.